WASHINGTON — For sixteen years, Sharanda Purlette Jones of Terrell worried she would die in prison.

She was serving a life sentence in a federal prison in Fort Worth after being convicted in 1999 on a charge of conspiring to distribute cocaine. Though she was a nonviolent first-time offender, Jones, 48, was ineligible for parole. Her only option was clemency from the president.

At 11:45 a.m. Friday, she received a call telling her that — on April 16 next year — she will walk free.

"She was just overwhelmed with joy," said her attorney Brittany Byrd, who told her the news. "We're all just overwhelmed."

President Barack Obama announced Friday that he had commuted sentences for Jones and 94 other federal inmates, many of whom are also nonviolent drug offenders. Eleven, including Jones, are from Texas. He also granted two pardons.

Obama has now commuted more sentences — 184 total — than any other president since Lyndon B. Johnson and more than the last five presidents combined, according to the U.S. Department of Justice website. Last year, then-Attorney General Eric Holder launched a clemency initiative to reduce sentences for nonviolent drug offenders, provided they met a series of requirements like good behavior and a minimum amount of time served.

Jones, who wrote in her clemency application that she began dealing cocaine to help support her family, was arrested in 1997. She was charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute and six counts of possession with intent to distribute. Jones was acquitted of the possession charges, but received a mandatory life sentence because of a series of "enhancements" to the conspiracy charge, according to a profile of her case in the Washington Post.

Byrd, Jones' lawyer, first discovered the case as a law student at Southern Methodist University in 2009. Byrd was writing about the sentencing disparities between crimes involving different types of cocaine and "just wanted to humanize the numbers," she said.

Byrd filed a clemency petition for her in 2013, though she knew the odds might be slim.

"There was really no judicial remedy for her," Byrd said. "Her only option was clemency, or she would die in prison as a first-time offender."

Byrd, a corporate lawyer, has filed similar petitions. In March, Obama commuted 22 sentences including one for another of Byrd's clients, Donel Marcus Clark of Dallas, who had served two decades on drug charges. But Jones was not named for a commutation then or in July, when the president commuted sentences for 46 more inmates.

Byrd said she was hopeful that Jones might receive a Christmastime commutation but had no way of knowing until she herself received a call late Friday morning. She called Jones immediately afterward, she added.

Jones plans first to spend time with her daughter Clenesha once she is released in April, Byrd said.

"We're just so grateful to President Obama for giving [Jones] a second chance at life," Byrd said. "We always held onto the hope we would see her name [on a list like this] and today it happened."